Sheffield United came back from a goal down to grab the share of the points at the London Stadium, meaning that both sides are still level on 13 points in seventh place.
It took almost 45 minutes for the deadlock to be broken by the home side. Jimenez pumped a long ball forward which the Blades failed to deal with which allowed Yarmolenko to play the ball into the path of Robert Snodgrass who put the Hammers ahead with a clinical finish into the bottom left-hand corner. An example of poor defending and a concentration slip on the brink of half time – Chris Wilder would not have been pleased.
With some second half tinkering and substitutions in place though Sheffield United managed to get themselves back on level terms. Lys Mousset, who was the hero against Arsenal on Monday, had only been on the pitch for five minutes but equalised with what was probably his first touch of the game. It was a routine ball from the right, which was nodded down by Stevens straight into the path of Mousset, who stuck the ball first time into the far corner to get his side level.
Sheffield United continue their unbeaten run on the road
Yes that’s right – the newly-promoted side are yet to lose an away game this season. Their impressive run consists of Bournemouth, Chelsea, Everton, Watford and West Ham and Saturday’s display proved how United can compete at this top level. For the Blades things are about to get a bit trickier though; their next away game is against the Champions League runners up, Tottenham Hotspur, which could potentially bring an end to their fantastic record away from home.
Sheffield United’s surge of away form could be attributed to the underdog factor. For example, the Blades fourth game of the season away to Chelsea, they were two-nil down at half-time and in the second half Wilder’s men fought for everything and turned the game on its head to grab a point. Let’s be honest, when you’re two-nil down at Stamford Bridge no one really expects you to turn the game around like that. But they did, and that’s why Sheffield have been so dangerous this season. Likewise, when the Blades swept passed Everton at Goodison, a second-half siege from them meant that they won 2-0 and nobody saw that coming.
West Ham winless in four
West Ham have had a great start to the season, they sit just in the top half of the table in tenth place after the weekends fixtures. However, recent results show that they might be coming of the boil. Following Saturday’s game, the Hammers are now without a win in four games and have Newcastle next week.
The North London side seem to be struggling to see out games from a leading position with their game against Crystal Palace a good example of this; the Hammers were in-front from a Haller goal, seemed to be cruising towards the full time whistle before they conceded twice in the last 20 minutes to throw the game away. Saturday was much the same, even though it appeared the home side were dominating the game, the away side only needed one chance to equalise – and they did.
Despite only taking a point against the Blades, Pellegrini’s side will feel that they should have taken more from Saturday’s game. The home side dominated possession with 61% of the ball, whilst also having more shots and corners than their opponents.
Both teams think they should have won
Interestingly both sides thought they should have emerged as the victors from Saturday’s game. Blades goalscorer Lys Mousset said, “We missed a lot of chances at the end. We managed to get a draw but we should have won. No surprise in where we are in the league. We just believe and keep pushing.”
On the other hand, West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini said, “Today we had the feeling we can do it better because we dominated part of the game and had chances to win it.” “We had two or three chances and must decide the game by scoring. We didn’t and lost two points.”
Hammers heading towards a tricky Christmas spell
The Hammers need to pick up points where they can as their Christmas fixture list isn’t looking very inviting. From the end of November to the end of December, Pellegrini’s side will face Tottenham, Chelsea, Wolves and Arsenal in the space of twenty days. This will prove to be a really tough test in such a short time so by the start of the new year, West Ham could be in a spot of bother.
Up next
Next week Pellegrini’s men will host Steve Bruce’s Magpies, whilst Chris Wilder’s squad will welcome Burnley to Bramall lane.
